Ninety-one people, including doctors and nurses, have been charged with making fraudulent US Medicare claims totalling $295m (£185m).

Some of the 91 are said to have billed the US government for health services to people who had already died.

Arrests were made in eight US cities, Attorney General Eric Holder said.

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The $295m total was the largest amount of false billing targeted by authorities since a joint team was set up by the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services in 2009, Mr Holder said.

Just under half of those charges came in Miami, considered a major centre for healthcare fraud.

The Miami charges included 24 defendants who allegedly paid recruiters to refer ineligible patients to a mental health centre.

Some were residents of halfway houses who were allegedly threatened with eviction if they did not attend the centre, court documents said.

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